A chief information security officer (CISO) is the senior-level executive within an organization responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, and program to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected. The CISO directs staff in identifying, developing, implementing, and maintaining processes across the enterprise to reduce information and information technology (IT) risks. They respond to incidents, establish appropriate standards and controls, manage security technologies, and direct the establishment and implementation of policies and procedures. The CISO is also usually responsible for information-related compliance (e.g. supervises the implementation to achieve IEC/ISO 27001:2013 certification for an entity, or a part of it).
Typically, the CISO's influence reaches the entire organization. Responsibilities may include, but not be limited to:
Having a CISO or the equivalent function in the organization has become a standard in business, government, and non-profit sectors. Throughout the world, a growing number of organizations have a CISO. By 2009, approximately 85% of large organizations had a security executive, up from 56% in 2008, and 43% in 2006. In 2011, in a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers for their Annual Information Security Survey, 80% of businesses had a CISO or equivalent. About one-third of these security chiefs report to a Chief Information Officer (CIO), 35% to Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and 28% to the board of directors.
In corporations, the trend is for CISOs to have a strong balance of business acumen and technology knowledge. CISOs are often in high demand and compensation is comparable to other C-level positions who also hold a similar corporate title.
Independent organizations such as Holistic Information Security Practitioner Institute (HISPI) and EC-Council provide training, education and certification by promoting a holistic approach to Cybersecurity to Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Information Security Officers (ISOs), Information Security Managers, Directors of Information Security, Security Analysts, Security Engineers and Technology Risk Managers from major corporations and organizations.